Researchers say the Indochinese leopard is functionally extinct in Cambodia after a 2021 camera-trap survey failed to capture a single individual from what was once thought to be the country’s last viable population of the big cat.
The study points to hunting as the most significant contributor to the decline of the subspecies, noting that the number of snares and traps observed in the study area increased despite years of law enforcement efforts.
Experts have called for focused conservation measures in the critically endangered subspecies' remaining strongholds in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand.
Years of law enforcement to tackle rampant snaring and poaching have failed to halt the loss of Cambodia’s last remaining Indochinese leopard population, according to a recent study.
The researchers believe that while a few individual Indochinese leopards (Panthera pardus delacouri) may still linger in Cambodia’s forests, the country no longer has a viable population of the subspecies.
“Given the current population status and myriad of threats, it is pretty certain that the Indochinese leopard now is functionally extinct in Cambodia,” study author Susana Rostro-Garcia, a scientist with the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and the NGO Panthera, told Mongabay in an email. “Regrettably, the population status and trajectory of the Critically Endangered Indochinese Leopard in the [Eastern Plains Landscape] suggest that population recovery in this priority site is unlikely to occur.”
Researchers conducted seven camera-trap surveys in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains between 2009 and 2019, revealing that the leopard population declined by 82% during that time. A further survey in 2021 found no leopards. (Individual leopards were caught on camera in Cambodia’s eastern highlands in 2022.)
The Indochinese leopard is critically endangered and its range has shrunk massively to as little as 2-6% of its former size. Cambodia’s population was considered a priority for conservation as one of the last viable, breeding populations, leaving remaining strongholds in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. In 2018, the same group of researchers estimated the subspecies would be “quasi-extinct” by 2029, though this was likely an underestimate, Rostro-Garcia said.
Full story: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/study ... -leopards/
RIP Leo- Snares claim another local extinction as Cambodia loses its leopards
- Bong Burgundy
- A Moment of Clarity
- Reactions: 281
- Posts: 2491
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:20 pm
- Location: K440 Channel 4 News
RIP Leo- Snares claim another local extinction as Cambodia loses its leopards
1
1
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
- 41 Replies
- 7569 Views
-
Last post by Lucky Lucan
Mon Aug 22, 2022 7:01 pm
-
-
Western Media claim about Hun Sen's dual citizenship was false
by Expatissimo » Thu Oct 07, 2021 11:25 am » in Cambodia News - 16 Replies
- 6475 Views
-
Last post by notreallysureyet
Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:06 pm
-
-
-
Sam Rainsy makes bizarre claim and Hun Manet replies
by Miguelito » Wed Oct 02, 2019 12:47 pm » in Cambodia News - 11 Replies
- 3606 Views
-
Last post by kungfufighter
Mon Oct 07, 2019 1:36 pm
-
-
- 253 Replies
- 35622 Views
-
Last post by v12
Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:33 pm